'Ya Dun Goofed': Evidence That Censorship Is Both Needed And Not Needed

from the you-been-reported-to-the-cyberpolice dept

If you happen to keep up with the latest internet memes (you know who you are), you almost certainly have heard about the whole "ya dun goofed"/Jessi Slaughter saga. If you (lucky you) aren't aware of this, and wish to find out (and, I warn you, you may be better off not knowing about this), all the details are at that link. Frankly, after watching the key videos, embedded below, the whole thing really feels faked for the sake of attention. The whole thing is so over the top that it feels like a calculated attempt to get viral YouTube fame.

Either way, whether it's real or not, what's fascinating is how different people have reacted to it. Over at NewTeeVee, there's an interview with Kenyatta Cheese, where he notes that the most fascinating thing about it is that after the video above happened, there was another video chat (via Stickam), where a bunch of the folks who had supposedly been egging Jessi on, really are incredibly nasty to her in a chat, and she totally ignores it. I mean totally ignores all sorts of angry insults. For whatever reason, YouTube has taken that video down due to a "terms of use" violation, so you can't see it, but you can imagine it (I saw it before it was taken down). Basically, a few folks were chatting by video, and in the text chat, people were hurling all of the worst kinds of slurs at Jessi, and she acts in the complete opposite way as in the video above: no crying, no anger. She just focuses on other folks.

As Kenyatta notes:

What's more interesting to me is the fact that just after her very public breakdown, she went back on Stickam a few hours later, completely unfazed by the insults being hurled at her.... The chat is filled with the kind of stuff that parents would call 'bullying,' however, she's totally ignoring it all. Clearly the internet has created a new kind of teenager, able to filter out the kind of noise that would "ruin" the life of folks like Star Wars Kid just years before.

That seemed interesting to me, though, I'm not sure I buy that. First of all, it's a single anecdote involving a single person and (again), I'm still not convinced this is real.

After reading that interview earlier, I had considered doing a post about that claim of the "new kind of teenager," but figured that the "evidence" was so weak, it wasn't worth it. However, I was then amused to look at the submissions for Techdirt, and find a note from reader athe pointing to a professor in Australia who is using the saga as evidence of why the internet should be censored. In other words, he looks at the same videos and comes to the exact opposite conclusion as Kenyatta did.

Where Kenyatta sees a teenager who can filter out bullying and get on with her life, Professor Matt Warren, looks at it and sees a horrible, out of control internet that needs to be censored.

Professor Matt Warren, the head of Deakin University's School of Information Systems, said as long as parents who don't understand the internet kept giving their children access to it, there needed to be ways to control its use.

"You simply can't have free access to the internet," he said.

"It has to be controlled, censored and people have to be held accountable for their actions on it.

"We punish people who drink, we punish people who speed and we have to implement laws to that effect when it comes to the internet."

Thankfully, people are taking professor Warren to task in the comments on that article, noting that censoring Jessi wouldn't have helped. The Australian internet filters certainly wouldn't have stopped the ability of a girl to go online and make some videos. The real issue (if this story is actually real -- but it would apply to others as well), is that this is yet another example of where better parenting, rather than Big Brother governing, would probably help out. And, no, that doesn't mean spying on everything a kid does, but getting parents to at least talk to their kids about what happens online, and what their kids are doing online, along with the risks associated with being online.

And another thing...

"""And, no, that doesn't mean spying on everything a kid does, but getting parents to at least talk to their kids about what happens online, and what their kids are doing online, along with the risks associated with being online."""

Furthermore, an 11 year old child, heck, any child under the age of 18, should not have unfettered access to a computer with internet access and a webcam in their bedroom.

And even if you don't agree 100% with the above statement, can we all at least agree on the webcam part? WTF were this kid's parents thinking???

The story goes a little farther then just those videos. It is very real and as I have come to understand the story, she is an 11 year old that was talking herself up in her video. The people that started posting on her videos were not very nice and her video responses weren't either. She actually said that she would put a cap in someones mouth and make brain soup. She was holding her own just fine as you pointed out. The problem came when her "fans" attacked all the social networking sites, built a 'file' on her which included name, address, and phone number and started attacking the house. This of course got the parents involved and the police. Now this is just what I've read about online, so it may not all be true, I did see the video where she threatens but her whole youtube account is gone

brainfuck

Re: And another thing...

No, I don't agree with that at all. 0%

There is nothing wrong with having the tools, wether it be a wecam, a mp3 player, or a rifle. The tool is blamless; its the person that uses it that you have to worry about. And here, the parenting is in question, not the tools.

If you do a good job parenting, and actually teach your kids right and wrong, then you wouldnt have to spy on them, or anything worse than talk to them about your concerns.

I talk to my kids, and express my concerns about things I think they should think about. Because, having been a teenager not all that long ago, I know the pains I took to hide my activities from my parents. I do NOT want that kind of thing between me and my children.

So my wife and I make sure to talk to them, not down to them, and we dont preach at them. I just express my concerns and answer thier questions honestly without heat or anger. Its the kind of relationship I wanted with my parents at that age, to feel comfortable in coming to them about tough situations.

Re: And another thing...

No, I don't agree with that at all. 0%

There is nothing wrong with having the tools, wether it be a wecam, a mp3 player, or a rifle. The tool is blamless; its the person that uses it that you have to worry about. And here, the parenting is in question, not the tools.

If you do a good job parenting, and actually teach your kids right and wrong, then you wouldnt have to spy on them, or anything worse than talk to them about your concerns.

I talk to my kids, and express my concerns about things I think they should think about. Because, having been a teenager not all that long ago, I know the pains I took to hide my activities from my parents. I do NOT want that kind of thing between me and my children.

So my wife and I make sure to talk to them, not down to them, and we dont preach at them. I just express my concerns and answer thier questions honestly without heat or anger. Its the kind of relationship I wanted with my parents at that age, to feel comfortable in coming to them about tough situations.

Re:

I actually read several articles blaming 4chan for the attacks. I'm not sure how valid those are, seeing as 4chan has become the Islamic terrorists of the online world in terms of everyone blaming everything on them....

Re: Re: brainfuck

Topless shots she was doing on cam also flooded 4chan when it started. Most articles don't mention that she was an 11 year old posing topless or that she was saying she likes to have sex until she bleeds. It's a mess all ways you look at it.

Some of those pictures were sent to her school and the local police. It's lecture time from CPS on how to be a better parent. There's an interview with her mom where her mom says she doesn't look at the computer and how her daughter is totally innocent of all wrong doing. I don't know if CPS can change that attitude.

Dark Helmet is right it was /b/ that got her dox (dont say 4chan when it was /b/) she was already being bullied before /b/ started but once they start you know the rest
i been watching this for the past 2 weeks all over /b/
where was her parents when she was posting videos
censorship in place of good parenting is fail

There have always been 2 kinds of people

Those who can brush off insults and those who can't. I couldn't care less what strangers say about me. I sleep just fine. Others though, take things personally and get upset.

The internet is just the latest medium, it could be the old fashioned message boards a school yard or neighborhood. Maybe we should just censor speech, because that is what we are really talking about hear. Oh wait, there is a pesky document that says we can't do that.

DH- /b/ is a channel on 4chan for random. /p/ is papercraft/origami and each channel has a letter designation. People who post on the /b/ or random channel are known as btards. In other words, not everything or everyone on 4chan is crazy and there is actually a lot of really harsh social punishments for violating certain rules.

Re: Re: Re:

Re:

Hmm, I always had a kind of respect for 4chan. They weren't always the, er, nicest of people on the block, but they always seemed to have a sense of humorous justice (i.e. going after people that clearly need to be knocked down a peg, Scientology, I'm looking at you!).

As far as internet vigilantes go, I assume we could all do far worse....

Were her original posts ill-advised? Yes. Does she deserve to be knocked down a peg? Yes. She's an 11 year old girl. Hold her to the standard of an 11 year old girl. Who among us hasn't sent an ill-advised email, text, or comment and wished we could take it back? You can't. Consider yourself lucky it didn't go viral. The more attention this gets (if it can get any more), the more she and her father will be ridiculed by everyone they meet. I think they've suffered enough.

Re:

I don't believe that they were faked. First, she's never denied that she took them, or that the photos in question are of her, even during the 'A-CUP' campaign. Next, they were floating around before /b got ahold of the story. Last, her conduct and dress in videos are in-line with a girl who'd cam it up.

This is when children realize that not even their parents can protect them against some things.

She was 11 and stupid, now she is 11 and less stupid.

Yes there are a-holes in the world. Surprise! and this is why you don't try to pick a fight with everyone, people keep saying it scars children, how else do they learn if they don't fall?

If she was a CEO what would people do?
The exact same thing, the difference here is that CEO's know better not to antagonise others, because they know the hits will come from everywhere, they learned that lesson somewhere didn't they?

It is sad, but it will happen over and over again and this is not a internet thing this is a human thing.

If people think /b/ had nothing to do with this, or that the story is fake, they just haven't been aware of it long enough to know the truth. To those of us that watched it unfold it was sad, shocking and funny at the same time.

Personally I think it went too far. The mainstream media is slowly but surely becoming aware of it around the world. Once masses of people suddenly flood to /b/ and discover what is posted there (everything from child pornography to beastiality and snuff), there WILL be an outcry. /b/ might have dug their own grave with this one. Somebody has described it as the asshole of the internet and that's exactly what it is.

Re: Re: And another thing...

I agree with this, and I am going to add a little.

Kids WILL do dumb things. That's part of being a kid. You think you know everything and really do not until you make some mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes are private and sometimes they are very public - this is nothing new.

Making the internet, or chat rooms, or webcams the target is just focusing on the new way kids can harm themselves. Some of us hung body parts out of car windows when we were kids. Blame the car? Making some mistakes is part of growing up.

I'll also add that this girl's father was in the background of a video being made of her having a breakdown? Perhaps he should follow the advice given on America's Funniest Home Videos all those years ago "if the baby is teetering on the edge of the wall, put the camera down and pick up the baby".

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

I Remember

I remember the time when you could do something stupid and you would only have to feel the fool for as long as the people around you remembered your stupidity or you moved somewhere else. No longer, when show your ass to the world expect to be internationally ridiculed and the worst is that the internet never forgets.

The best thing that you can do is find a way to monetize your stupidity. Might as well get paid for it.

If it hadn't of been done on the internet, but in a cafe, or on the playground...would the kids have been arrested? Sure there are anti-bully laws out there, but they are all mostly a huge joke. If they worked, they could be applied to the internet as well, but no. We need new laws to censor the internets and to protect the childrens!

If this were a conversation and that guy yelled at me like that he'd be spending the rest of his night looking for his teeth. It's no wonder it went viral with all the wonderful quotes he gave the /b/tards to use as ammo. I knew this had "meme of the week" written all over it from the first time I saw him on youtube raging.

Kids don't belong on the internet. End of conversation. From internet's father!

This moron here...

You know what i think is funny? This girl is obviously just trying to get attention. If she was so "Conflicted" by these comments being thrown at her, why does she continue to create accounts so she can continue filming and posting her videos? If her father was so "offended", then why would he continue letting her expose herself like she STILL does to this day? If her family was so "Torn", then why would they be so choreographed about their performance in these videos? Notice when the father comes in, the daughter, as if on queue, leans to the side and INSTANTLY ceases "crying". She even smiles, and almost laughs when he says "THE CONSQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME".

Jessi Slaughter

Does anyone else notice when she tells her dad to shush with her finger? I think that was all planned out.I agree with a lot of the coments on here too. That stupid little b*stard. She's doing it to become 'famous'. It only made us hate her more. Is it bad if I get the ya dun goofed shirt? xD

yeah

I don't pay any attention to videos anymore. The Internet has indeed bred a new kind of teenager. A lost one. Who needs Hollywood when you can be fake and loony right from your own bedroom? Hollywood has always been known for fucking up the lives of people. The Internet certainly need regulation. Even better would be to destroy it. It is ruining decency in the world by putting all focus on the things that were always meant to be underground or hidden. Using the Internet weapon, we are basically handing our kids all the things they were never meant to see. We are being reckless and irresponsible. But I will say this. I AM NOT. I don't allow my children on the Internet...ever. And for good reason. And I don't really think carelessness is the reason why the Internet is bad. I believe conspiracy is a more accurate presumption. There are those in this world that would love nothing more than to see the community fall to pieces. And it will when the adults are dead and gone and the world is ran by today's narrow-minded kids.